The Red Oak Creek Covered Bridge’s longevity is nearly as astounding as the story of its builder, Horace King, part black, part white, part Catawba Indian—a man so far ahead of his time that he wore a soul patch 60 years before anyone heard of jazz.

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It doesn’t much matter what I think about Superica and The El Felix, Ford Fry’s two new Tex-Mex restaurants with almost identical menus and almost identical lines. When I asked the manager of The El Felix—in Avalon, the Alpharetta mall-city—how many diners they served, he said, “Three to four hundred on a slow night.”

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Style & Substance

How to decorate with summer's happiest hues, a Swedish midsummer celebration, where to shop on the Westside, Nancy Braithwaite on Coco Chanel, luxe life on the lake, an essay from Mary Kay Andrews, and much more in the summer issue of Atlanta Magazine's HOME.

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Southbound magazine, the newest ancillary title from the publishers of Atlanta magazine, showcases the top travel destinations in the Southeast. We visit idyllic small towns and exciting cities in search of outstanding vacation opportunities.Inside Southbound

Custom Publication

Georgia offers diverse places to see and things to do, from the mountains in North Georgia to the coasts of Savannah and The Golden Isles. Take a tour in your own backyard and visit all that our great state has to offer. Begin your tour

Dining in has its advantages: You can wear what you want, eat when you want, and drink as much as you like. To craft the perfect dinner party but skip dirtying the kitchen, look to these seven purveyors for the best meat, cheese, pasta, wine, and dessert.

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July 2015: Top Doctors

The list of doctors whom other doctors trust most. Plus, a roundtable of experts on the challenges of Alzheimer’s disease, and an Atlanta photographer documents his surgeon father’s struggle with dementia.

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Carters Lake

Georgia’s deepest lake welcomes reflection or recreation

Like just about every other sizable body of water in Georgia, Carters Lake is not a lake but a reservoir. It was created thirty-six years ago, when the Coosawattee River—which had been diverted to permit construction of the largest earthen dam east of the Mississippi—slammed into the dam’s embankment. Today the river that once cut deep into this North Georgia gorge and inspired James Dickey’s Deliverance is submerged, in places, 450 feet beneath the eleven-mile expanse of Georgia’s deepest lake, where anglers fish for spotted bass, walleye, and stripers that grow bigger than my dog.

There is no development permitted on the sixty-three miles of shoreline along Carters Lake, which ensures breathtaking vistas and seclusion that are hard to find anywhere else within a ninety-minute drive from Downtown Atlanta. My family and I rented a house near one of the lake’s only commercial operations, the Carters Lake Marina & Resort, which rents pontoon boats. The marina also has ten cabins with lake views, but we went through KZ Cabins in nearby Ellijay, which rents private homes throughout Gilmer and Gordon counties. Called “Cherokee Overlook,” our cabin offered exactly what KZ promised: creature comforts (five televisions, a pool table, and quick Wi-Fi), quiet (except for the suicidal cardinal that insisted on flying into the downstairs window), and a gorgeous view of the lake below. We had hoped the water would be within walking distance, but it was a long hike down the road to the highway, which we would have had to cross to reach the lake. Indeed, it’s a challenge getting down to the edge. Most of the shoreline falls sharply into the waters. An exception is a small beach at the Harris Branch Recreation Area in the lake’s southeast corner, though it was still closed for the season while we were there.

Carters Lake offers at least four boat-launch sites, and there are numerous fishing guides who will take you out on the water. For landlubbers, there’s also a host of hiking trails around the lake, and the helpful guides at the Carters Lake Visitor Center, just off Highway 136, will happily direct you. (One word of warning: Be sure to prominently display your parking sticker; rangers here are vigilant.) Mountain bikers are in luck around Carters Lake: The top end of the lake boasts a six-mile trail that features both intermediate and advanced stretches.

Hungry? If you haven’t packed enough food for your stay, the dining options are limited. Our first night we doubled back about twenty-five minutes to Bigun’s Barbeque, which we’d passed on Highway 515. Attached to a Chevron, the restaurant gets packed on weekend nights. The brisket was tender, and Bigun’s offers a healthy array of tableside sauces. (The staff was also very understanding of the mess my one-year-old left on the floor.)

We couldn’t leave Carters Lake without dropping by Gilmer County’s first winery, Cartecay Vineyards. East of Ellijay, past dozens of apple orchards, Cartecay offers generous pours at its tasting bar, and you’re welcome to check out the thirteen acres of grapes. The phrase “Georgia wines” has for years been an oxymoron, but Cartecay’s wines, especially the Vidal Blanc, made us stop and go, “Hey, this isn’t bad!” And then buy a bottle. Or was it two?